Archive for April, 2011

My sister is getting married later today, and while getting ready, I’ve been watching the History Channel, something I haven’t done in quite a while. I know, no Food Channel or Travel Channel? It’s not like I’m straying that far. But I’m hit with the realisation that SCIENCE IS AWESOME! Sure, I hit this every time I read an xkcd comic or read news articles about medical break-throughs, but sometimes it hits me just how much we now know because of simple scientific advancements and achievements.

For instance, we now know without much doubt that the dinosaurs were indeed killed off by a giant meteor 65 million years ago. How? Because we stumbled upon a layer in rock beds from 65 million years ago that’s chalk full of iridium, and then we found the actual crater in the Gulf of Mexico using satellite imaging. COOL!

(On a similar, dinosaur note, we now know that dinosaurs had feathers and that multiple species were actually just the same species at different ages. Too bad, Jurassic Park.)

Or there’s the whole thing where, through fMRI and other brain imaging techniques, we’ve found biological differences in brain structure for those who are gay or transgender. The fact that we can find these biological differences means it’s more difficult for people to claim that it’s “just a choice”. When a three year-old male is showing the brain structures of a three year-old female in a brain scan and claims that he is in fact a she, we can no longer deny a biological reason behind their behaviour. Once again, science is awesome!

Science teaches us why anti-bacterial soaps harm our immune-system and why driving west on Highway 70 gives you worse gas-mileage than going east. It warns us about our carbon emissions and why we need enough plants to balance out our planet’s oxygen levels. We have learned so much in the past one hundred fifty years, and it simply amazes me! I hope it amazes you, too, since we all use science every day. Whether you use the internet or take medicine for you high blood-pressure or turn on the television or eat a piece of fruit that wasn’t grown in your area, you’re totally using technology and science.